Bullock is the surname of an English family that traces its roots to the C12th. Notable members of the family of Aborfield and Faulkbourne include Sir Edward Bullock of Faulkbourne (c. 1580 - 1644), Colonel John Bullock M.P (1731–1809), Professor Walter Llewellyn Bullock (1890–1944) and Sir Christopher Bullock (1891–1972).[1][2]
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The family name is derived from the Anglo-Saxon, “bulluca”, a young bull, and being linked to the old Anglian and Norman Christian name Osmund, represents one of the earliest instances of an English hereditary surname that was purely personal nickname in origin.[1]
The origins of the name 'Arborfield' remain uncertain. The family is first recorded in 1166 in Edburgefeld, meaning 'Edburga's Field', (Edburga being a widespread Saxon lady's name) which evolved through variations to the modern Arborfield as first recorded in the 17th century.[1]
The earliest recording of the family is Osemundus Bulloc in the Pipe Rolls of Berkshire in 1166. The Herald’s Visitations of the C15th record his son, Richard, and these, and later visitations, carry the descent in an unbroken line to Edward Bullock of Faulkbourne in 1664.[1]
Richard’s son, Gilbert, made formal declaration in 1250 of his holding of the Manor of Sunning from Bishop of Salisbury.
Robert Bullock 2nd of Aborfield was Sheriff for the Counties of Berkshire and Oxfordshire in 1384 and 1392 under King Richard II of England and, in 1394, was Commissioner of the Peace for Berkshire.
Thomas the 2nd was Gentleman Usher Extraordinary to Henry VIII in 1516 and one of the Commissioners for Berkshire collecting the subsidy for King Henry VIII in 1523. In 1544, he supplied archers, billmen and horses for the war with France – leading to the seven bills originally in the family crest.[1]
Thomas the 3rd (1546–1595) was High Sheriff of Berkshire in 1581 and in the Commission of the Peace in 1592. He was the last of Arborfield, being obliged to sell the estates, the Manors of Arberfield and Barkham lying in the towns, villages and fields of Arberfeld, Barkham, Hurst, Ockingham, Shingfield and Erley, due to accumulated debts. His uncle, George, refused to hand over the deeds. Thomas was forced by the family to produce a deed of entail and, having received the title deeds, he then repudiated the deed. His brother and heir, William, litigated through the Court of Chancery and the Star Chamber but the sale was confirmed.[1]
When Thomas the 3rd died, William, with the support of tenants, entered into possession in serious contempt of court resulting in him being thrown into Fleet Prison. William continued actions to recover the estate in the Queen’s Bench, then the Court of Common Pleas and then petitioned the Queen, the Privy Council and the Lord Keeper but in vain.[1][2]
William, released from prison and now of Stratfield Mortimer, married well, his third wife being Elizabeth Bellet of Morton in Essex, restoring the family fortunes.[1]
His son, John, moved the family to the Manor House of Mulsham, at Great Wigborough in Essex where he purchased estates at Loftes in Great and Little Totham. These estates remained in the family until the death of Edward the 5th of Faulkbourne in 1705.[1]
Sir Edward Bullock (c.1580 - 1644) was the elder son of Edward Bullock of Wigborough and Loftes in Great Totham and Joan Collen of High Laver, Essex. He was knighted by King James I and a Cavalier during the English Civil War. He purchased Faulkbourne Hall in 1637 which was held in the Bullock family for 260 years over 10 generations.[1][2]
Sir Edward married Elizabeth, daughter, and heiress, of Thomas Wyld of Glazeley Hall, Salop and Kemsey, Worcester and sister of Sir Edmond Wyld.
In 1602, he obtained from William Camden, the Clarenceux King of Arms, "Confirmation" of the Arms of the Bullocks of Aborfield with due difference to mark his descent from a younger son.
On 3 July 1609 he was knighted by King James I at Richmond.[1]
In the early days of the reign of King Charles I, he was appointed a Forced ‘Loan’ Collector for the County of Norfolk whilst living in Pentney, c. 1622-31. His accounts returned on 12 June 1627 show that as a result of his Commission, he paid the sum of £1,200 into the Royal Exchequer. The deeply unpopular loans hastened the rupture between the King and Parliament.[1]
Sir Edward’s public and social duties resulted in heavy expenditure so that on his death, outlying estates of Loftes, Little Mapelstead and Finchingfield amongst others were sold. He died in 1644 and was buried at the Church of St Germanus at Faulkbourne.
Throughout the C17th and C18th, the family thrived through a series of marriages to wealthy heiresses.[2]
Edward the 5th (1663–1705) was Lord of seven Manors and sat as a Member of Parliament for the County of Essex in 1698 and later for the Borough of Colchester in 1703.[3]
He became Deputy Lieutenant of the County of Essex and High Sheriff of Essex in 1696 and 1703. By marrying Elizabeth, elder daughter of Sir Mark Guyon Kt of Coggeshall, large estates at Coggeshall, Maplestead and Finchingfield were added. Sir Mark was Sheriff of Essex in 1676. After the death of Elizabeth, he married a second time to Mary, the daughter of Sir Josiah Child of Wanstead. Sir Josiah thoroughly opposed the marriage and left his daughter a mere £5 in his will "and no more because she hath married not only without my consent but expressly against my command and contrary to her own repeated promises and lette others learne by her example".[1][2]
Through Sir Mark’s younger daughter, Rachel, who married Edward’s younger brother, John Bullock[4], Sir Mark’s estates at Radwinter and Great Wigborough came into the family and passed by intestacy to Colonel John Bullock.
Edward’s son, Josiah (1697–1752), attempted to follow his Child grandfather and to make a fortune in trade. He spent most of his life in London – in Highgate and the City – as a Royal Exchange Director and Hambro Merchant. Though a local J.P. and D.L., he neglected his duties at Faulkbourne.[1]
Colonel John Bullock (1731–1809), Josiah’s son, was painted by Thomas Gainsborough. He was a Colonel in the East Essex Militia. Educated at Clare Hall Cambridge, at the age of 23 he embarked on a Parliamentary career that lasted 56 years culminated in him becoming Father of the House. He was also High Sheriff of Essex in 1802. He took a keen interest in Faulkbourne and undertook many improvements to the house and grounds. A patron of the arts, he founded a wide-ranging collection of pictures. Whilst his wife Elizabeth[5][6] was a considerable heiress to large slum estates in Southwark over 17 acres containing 400 houses, he exhausted a large part of her fortune on Parliamentary life. She died in 1793 and they had no children.[1] He left his estates on his death, in 1809, to Jonathan Josiah Christopher Watson, son of his elder sister, also Elizabeth, who had married Jonathan Watson JP DL FRS of Ringhall in Suffolk.
Jonathan Josiah Christopher Watson (1749–1832) succeeded to the Essex estates directly from his uncle, the Colonel, in 1809 and, in the following year, took the surname Bullock, rather than Watson, under Royal Sign Manual, subject to some £24,000 of debt. Jonathan was a Major in the East Essex Militia.[2]
His eldest son, also Jonathan (1773–1860), served in the 1st Dragoon Guards and as Justice of the Peace, Deputy Lieutenant and, in 1836, High Sheriff of Essex. He did not marry an heiress but the Vicar of Witham’s daughter.[2]
After Jonathan’s death in 1860, the pressure of social and economic change of the C19th brought the beginnings of the family’s decline at Faulkbourne. Properties began to be sold when Walter Trevelyan (1818–1878) inherited, leaving only Faulkbourne and Radwinter Estates in the family.[2]
Rev. Walter Trevelyan Bullock’s (1818–1878) three elder brothers predeceased him. He had been Rector of Faulkbourne until 1852 before moving to Devon. After only a year, he had to return to Faulkbourne on the death of his brother. He lived mainly in London and, on a visit to Faulkbourne, accidentally poisoned himself and died in 1878.[2] Walter Trevelyan's sister, Margaret Emily (1822-1913), married the Rev. the Hon. Llewellyn Charles Robert Irby, the younget son of George Irby, 3rd Baron Boston.
His eldest son, Walter Henry Bullock (1861–1924), was the last of Faulkbourne. During his youth, his trustees carried out extensive repairs to the house but he never lived at Faulkbourne. In 1892, most of the tapestries and chief pictures, such the fitted Aubusson tapestries and Gainsborough’s portrait of Colonel John were sold.[1][2]
The property was finally sold to Andre Motion in 1897 and resold to Christopher Parker.[2]
Walter Henry died in 1924. His son, Henry Talbot Bouverie had a daughter.
Therefore the family line passed through Walter Henry’s brother, the Rev Llewellyn Christopher (1886–1936) and, in turn, to his eldest son, Walter Llewellyn.
Professor Walter Llewellyn Bullock (1890–1944) was an English scholar, critic, teacher, lecturer and promoter of Italian Studies at the Universities of Chicago and Manchester where he was Serena Professor of Italian. He was founder, in 1937, and general editor of Italian Studies as the annual journal of the Society for Italian Studies. He left his exceptional collection of over 5,000 books and several hundred pamphlets including over 2,600 volumes printed between 1500 and c. 1625 and important critical editions of Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Ariosto, and Torquato Tasso, as well as many works on the Questione della Lingua to the John Rylands University Library at the University of Manchester.[1][7] He died aged only 54. The line then passed to Llewellyn’s second son, Sir Christopher Bullock.
Sir Christopher Bullock K.C.B, C.B.E. (1891–1972) was Permanent Under-Secretary at the British Air Ministry from 1931 to 1936. Appointed at the age of 38, he remains one the youngest civil servants to have headed a British Government department.[8][9] He married Barbara Lupton in 1917.
Sir Christopher Llewellyn was succeeded by his elder son, Richard Henry Watson Bullock (1920–1998).
The first Heraldic record, 1532, gives the Arms of Thomas Bullock of Aborfield as
In Harvey’s Visitation of 1565-6, the crest had changed to
The Grant of Arms to Sir Edward in 1602 changed the chevron from argent to ermine and the crest became
The motto reads : nil conscrire sibi
Other branches of the family settled across England and overseas.